Svetlana Lloyd

Svetlana E. Lloyd (née Kassessinova/Kassessinoff) was a house model, or "mannequin", for the Dior fashion house in Paris for four years in the 1950s, under designers Christian Dior and Yves Saint Laurent. She became known as the "''Trapèze'' Line girl" after wearing Saint Laurent's ''Trapeze'' dress at a fashion show in 1958 and featuring on magazine covers around the world.

Early life

She was born Svetlana Kassessinova or Kassessinoff in Egypt to Russian parents who had left Russia because of the revolution. Her father worked as a miniaturist and painter for King Farouk and her mother was a seamstress.

Ballet dancer

She was sent to Legat's School of Ballet in Tunbridge Wells, England, run by Nadine Legat (wife of Nikolai Legat), and trained there as a ballet dancer. She joined the Sadler's Wells Ballet, and whilst on a tour of ''A Midsummer Night's Dream'' in the United States, injured her knee ice skating, forcing her to give up ballet. Another account states that she had to stop ballet as she had grown too tall.

Model for Dior

Aged 20, and as she spoke French, she went to Paris to try to get a receptionist job, entered a Dior boutique to ask about positions, and was shown upstairs by an assistant to try on a dress after which Christian Dior gave her a job as a house model or "mannequin". She started work the next day. She later remembered that she didn't know how to walk as a model but she did know how to move due to her training as a dancer.

She was the first to model Saint Laurent's new ''Trapèze'' line dress, becoming the "''Trapèze'' Line girl" after wearing the dress in Dior's January 1958 fashion show when the new silhouette, "growing from the bust" was first revealed. She subsequently featured on the cover of magazines around the world. The dress, that Lloyd later observed was more significant for its shape than its grey wool material, is now in New York's Metropolitan Museum. She worked regularly for Dior and remembered him for kindness and being more concerned with elegance than beauty.

After Dior's death she joined the other models in occupying the front two rows of the church for the funeral. They all wore black ''haute couture'' coats.

Later life

After two seasons with Christian Dior and two collections with Yves Saint Laurent, she set sail for the United States, where she met her first husband, the American investment banker Roger H. Lloyd. They married in South Kensington, London, in 1959,Svetlana E Kassessinoff England and Wales Marriage Registration Index, 1837–2005.
Family Search. Retrieved 18 January 2021. and spent four years in New York, where they had two children, Alexander and Marina. She now lives in South Kensington, London, with her current husband.

Lloyd worked as an assistant editor for '' Mademoiselle'' magazine for 50 years but it took her decades to get used to wearing ill-fitting ready-to-wear clothes rather than ''haute couture'' garments that were made to fit. She later took up samba dancing, winning a silver medal as an amateur. In 2004, she sold two "tight and painful" corsets at Christie's that she wore at Dior, receiving £300 for them, despite observing that they had not been washed since 1956.

References

External links

Auido interview for the V&A's 2019 exhibition, "Christian Dior: Designer of Dreams"

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lloyd, Svetlana
Living people
Dior people
1930s births
Russian female models
Russian models
Russian ballerinas
Dancers of The Royal Ballet